The fallout from actress Annie Yi’s (伊能靜) reported affair with fellow thespian and hot stud Laurence Huang (黃維德) continued this week, when Eastern Media Group’s Shopping Channel (東森購物) terminated its contract with the disgraced star and demanded NT$16 million from her in compensation.
The channel’s spokes-person said the company’s public image had been damaged by Yi’s alleged transgression, namely, the tarnishing of her image as the devoted wife of singer Harlem Yu (庾澄慶) and loving mother of their six-year-old son, which were the main reasons why the company chose her to endorse its skin-care products in the first place.
The message, it seems, is that while it might be OK for male celebrities to play away, monogamy is the only option for female stars who want to safeguard their celebrity status and economic success.
Following in the footsteps of his action hero father Jackie Chan (成龍), Jaycee Chan (房祖名) continues to add to his reputation as the Lothario par excellence of his generation, having been romantically associated with celebrity belles such as pop singers Elva Hsiao (蕭亞軒), Fish Leong (梁靜茹), Penny Tai (戴佩妮) and Gillian Chung (鍾欣桐).
Next magazine reports that Junior’s tastes have changed and that he now favors long-legged models like Huang Ching-li (黃景俐), whom he was spotted with on his birthday on Wednesday at Taipei’s Joyce Cafe and, later that evening, the nightclub Primo.
What surprised the paparazzi even more, however, was how much the son’s mother, Joan Lin (林鳳嬌), has aged. Lin married Jackie Chan some 20 years ago when her career as a movie superstar was at its peak, then promptly retired from public life.
Judging from a snapshot taken on Wednesday and printed in the magazine, Lin looks exactly like your typical 55-year-old housewife, rather than an aging celebrity who relies on Botox to maintain her looks.
Speaking of bad boys, American-born Taiwanese singer Stanley Huang (黃立行) beat out Hong Kong’s Edison Chen (陳冠希) for the title of hottest bad-boy singer, according to the poll conducted by Yahoo Taiwan at tw.music.yahoo.com/poll/list.html. Gossip-mongers attribute the heartthrob’s success in this area to his album We All Lay Down in the End (最後只好躺下來), which was released earlier this month. Huang’s music is regarded as a fine piece of sultry work and is loaded with suggestive lyrics such as, “I want to strip you, exploit you, suck you and thrust you. I want to torture you.”
Local actress and television host Pink Yang (楊千霈) is attracting the media’s attention with her debut on the high society scene. Pictures from Yang’s blog show that the 26-year-old star spent five days dining, sightseeing and debauching in London with Huo Qiren (霍啟人) and his wealthy young friends at the end of last month. Huo — who reportedly had a girlfriend — is the 21-year-old scion of a Hong Kong family worth a reported NT$80 billion.
Male members of the Huo clan are known for their high-profile affairs with famous women. Big brother Kenneth Huo (霍啟剛) has been going steady with top Chinese athlete Guo Jingjing (郭晶晶), and second brother Huo Qishan (霍啟山) dated Zhang Ziyi (章子怡), before the superstar moved on to Israeli capitalist Vivi Nevo. Now it’s a Taiwanese girl’s turn to have a go.
No one saw it coming. Everyone — including the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — expected at least some of the recall campaigns against 24 of its lawmakers and Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) to succeed. Underground gamblers reportedly expected between five and eight lawmakers to lose their jobs. All of this analysis made sense, but contained a fatal flaw. The record of the recall campaigns, the collapse of the KMT-led recalls, and polling data all pointed to enthusiastic high turnout in support of the recall campaigns, and that those against the recalls were unenthusiastic and far less likely to vote. That
Behind a car repair business on a nondescript Thai street are the cherished pets of a rising TikTok animal influencer: two lions and a 200-kilogram lion-tiger hybrid called “Big George.” Lion ownership is legal in Thailand, and Tharnuwarht Plengkemratch is an enthusiastic advocate, posting updates on his feline companions to nearly three million followers. “They’re playful and affectionate, just like dogs or cats,” he said from inside their cage complex at his home in the northern city of Chiang Mai. Thailand’s captive lion population has exploded in recent years, with nearly 500 registered in zoos, breeding farms, petting cafes and homes. Experts warn the
A couple of weeks ago the parties aligned with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), voted in the legislature to eliminate the subsidy that enables Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) to keep up with its burgeoning debt, and instead pay for universal cash handouts worth NT$10,000. The subsidy would have been NT$100 billion, while the cash handout had a budget of NT$235 billion. The bill mandates that the cash payments must be completed by Oct. 31 of this year. The changes were part of the overall NT$545 billion budget approved
The unexpected collapse of the recall campaigns is being viewed through many lenses, most of them skewed and self-absorbed. The international media unsurprisingly focuses on what they perceive as the message that Taiwanese voters were sending in the failure of the mass recall, especially to China, the US and to friendly Western nations. This made some sense prior to early last month. One of the main arguments used by recall campaigners for recalling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers was that they were too pro-China, and by extension not to be trusted with defending the nation. Also by extension, that argument could be
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